Wet products such as wet wipes have many applications. They may be used with small children and infants when changing diapers, they may be used for house hold cleaning tasks, they may be used for cleaning hands, they may be used as a bath tissue, they may be used as by a caregiver to clean a disabled or incontinent adult, or they may be used in and for a whole host of other applications, where it is advantageous to have a wipe or towel that has some moisture in it.
Wet wipes have traditionally been made in processes in which larger webs of wipes are initially made and than these larger webs are converted into smaller rolls or sheets that can be placed in a dispenser. Embodiments of dispensers are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,705,565 and 6,626,395; U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,702,227; 6,537,631; 6,682,013; and 6,659,391, filed Sep. 12, 2000; patent application Ser. No. 09/659,307; 09/660,049; 09,659,311 (abandoned); and Ser. No. 09/659,306, filed Sep. 12, 2000; in application Ser. No. 09/748,618 (abandoned), filed Dec. 22, 2000; in application Ser. No. 09/841,323, filed Apr. 24, 2001; in application Ser. No. 09/844,731, filed Apr. 27, 2001; and in application Ser. No. 09/849,935, filed May 4, 2001, commonly owned, all the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Wet wipes can be any wipe, towel, tissue or sheet like product including natural fibers, synthetic fibers, synthetic material and combinations thereof, that is wet or moist. Examples of wet wipes are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,683,143; 6,429,261; 6,599,848; 6,444,214; 6,713,414; 6,548,592; 6,579,570; 6,653,406; and 6,537,663; and application Ser. Nos. 09/565,125 and 09/564,531, commonly owned, all filed May 4, 2000, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,423,804, entitled Ion-Sensitive Hard Water Dispersible Polymers And Applications Therefor, filed Dec. 31, 1998, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
There is a need for improved methods for making wet wipes, particularly for making rolls of wet wipes. Typically, wet wipes are manufactured as a roll of dry sheets and are then soaked in a wetting solution. Among other disadvantages, this method can lead to undesirable variations in the properties and performance of the wipes. It is desirable to manufacture wet wipes such that the wetting solution and its ingredients are uniformly distributed throughout the roll. It is also desirable to manufacture coreless rolls of wet wipes, which can be more conveniently packaged and sold.